2011 Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl

The Sun Belt representative was Florida International University. The Panthers had posted a school best 8-4 record and it was the school’s second bowl appearance, as FIU had won the previous year’s Little Caesars Pizza Bowl over Toledo 34-32. Mario Cristobal was in his fifth season as the FIU head coach.

Marshall University represented Conference USA. The Thundering Herd had won three of its last four games to become bowl eligible (6-6). Marshall had won six of nine previous bowl games and John “Doc” Holliday was in his second year as the team’s head coach.

T.Y. Hilton ran for a 2 yard score and FIU lead 7-3 after the first quarter. Rakeem Cato hooked up with Aaron Dobson on a 31 yard touchdown pass and it was tied 10-10 at the half. It was defensive struggle and the third quarter was scoreless. A blocked punt set up a second Tyler Warner field goal and Marshall was ahead. A 35 yard TD pass from Cato (27 of 39 for 226 yards with 2 TDs and an INT) to Dobson with 38 seconds remaining made the final score Marshall 20, FIU 10. With two TD grabs, Aaron Dobson was named game MVP.

Mario Cristobal commented, “When a game is tough like that, and it’s real tight like that, special teams become a critical part of it. They made the play on special teams that changed the game a lot to get a field goal with a blocked punt. At the end, of course, the extra seven points is what made it the final score, but those three points were critical.”

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